Great Oregon Shakeout drill is Thursday

Experts predict Oregon is due for a seismic event in the coming years. Know what to do if an earthquake strikes by taking part in the Great Oregon ShakeOut, a statewide earthquake drill scheduled to take place at 10:18 a.m. on Oct. 18.

“The Drop, Cover, and Hold drill allows individuals to practice what they would do in an earthquake. You may only have seconds to protect yourself in an earthquake so we need to be ready,” said Althea Rizzo, Geologic Hazards Program Coordinator at Oregon Emergency Management.

There are more than 1000 earthquakes over a magnitude of 1.0 in Oregon and Washington every year, with at least two dozen being large enough to be felt. Oregon is located in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 600 mile long earthquake fault stretching from offshore northern California to southern British Columbia. Subduction zone earthquakes are among the most powerful on Earth and are capable of producing damaging tsunami in coastal areas.